John Budney (jabudny at earthlink.net) wrote:
...
: -Why do we use animal models in toxicology (which may be related to the
: question: Why do we use animal models in biology?)
We use model organisms in biology for two kinds of reasons:
- ethical reasons
it's not moral to harm fellow humans
it's generally selectively negative for members of a species to
damage conspecifics
- technical ones
a well-chosen model system allows one to study whatever phenomenon
you're interested in in a more well-controlled way.
the model system may exhibit the phenomenon of interest in a more
easily accessible, or simplified way
model systems are usually less expensive to maintain than the target
system, but can provide answers that generalize back to it.
- George McKee
--
Internet: mckee at neosoft.com Voice: +1 713 890 8122
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Evolution: Selective replication from a population with heritable variation.
Evolution of Complexity: Like with size, there's always room at the top,
if the infrastructure can handle the load.